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| Hobbit Village |
The Hobbiton Movie Set was a significant location used for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and The Hobbit film series. It is situated on a family run farm about 8 kilometers (5.0 mi) west of Hinuera and 10 kilometers southwest of Matamata,in Waikato, New Zealand, and is now a Tourism destination, offering guided tours of the set.
The underlying geology of the area is that of the Hinuera Formation, a group of alluvial silts, sands and gravels laid down in the last glacial period.Originally largely marshland, it was transformed in the 19th century by a large-scale drainage scheme and is now fertile agricultural land that is also a major racehorse breeding area.
The Alexander family moved to the 500-hectare (1,200-acre) property of rolling grassland where the set is located in 1978. Since then it has been a livestock ranch with 13,000 sheep and 300 Angus beef cattle. The main sources of income from farming are mutton, wool and beef.
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| Hobbiton Movie Set |
When Peter Jackson began to look for suitable locations for The Lord of the Rings film series he first saw the Alexander Farm during an aerial search in 1998 and concluded that the area was "like a slice of ancient England". Set Decorator Alan Lee commented that the location's hills "looked as though Hobbits had already begun excavations". Part of the site has a lake with a long arm that could double as a river.
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| Hobbit Village , 2011 |
In 2010, the set was rebuilt in a more permanent fashion for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, filming for which began in 2011. McKellen reprised his role as Gandalf the Grey and was joined on the Hobbiton location by Martin Freeman, who remarked that the site "just looked like a place where people lived and where people worked".
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